Way the way over in lala land all of Hollywood arose at the crack of dawn this morning to hear the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announce that they had twelve times nominated a little British film, The King's Speech - which leads True Grit and Inception (ten nominations a piece) and eight times nominated and Golden Globe winning The Social Network in the race to Oscar glory.
The Academy may have tossed in a few surprises (Michelle Williams nominated for Best Actress in Blue Valentine, John Hawkes for Best Supporting Actor in Winter's Bone), made the odd ridiculous mistake (Hailee Steinfeld, Best Supporting Actress for True Grit when she's in every bloody scene of the film?) and a couple of firsts (Javier Bardem nominated for Biutiful - for first time an entirely foreign language performance has been recognised for Best Actor, and Toy Story 3 became the first animation to be nominated for Best Picture) but on the whole it still looks clear from the outset that the main categories are going to shape up in a fairly predictable but also rather nice way - no, that's right, there are no Titanics or Avatars here, and except for the rather bizarre prominence of the completely bog-standard The Kids Are All Right the list of nominees makes 2010 look like a classic year in cinema.
Let's start with the shoe-ins: Colin Firth has to be a certain for the Best Actor in a Leading Role Playing a Stuttering King Oscar while his fellow Brit Christian Bale seems to have Best Supporting Actor locked down for his terrific turn in The Fighter (nominated seven times); Natalie Portman may be facing some stiff competition from Annette Bening but does seem to have all the momentum going into the race with her performance as an hysterical ballerina in Black Swan winning universal plaudits. Meanwhile David Seidler will win Best Original Screenplay (aka the Oscar for Plucky Independent Movie of the Year) for The King's Speech and The Social Network is so certain to win Best Adapted Screenplay they might as well call it the Aaron Sorkin award.
... and best screenplay won't be the only big prize The Social Network nets. Though it collected less nods than The King's Speech it's going to end the night with more prizes and will almost certainly net two of the biggest with Best Director for David Fincher and - the main prize - Best Picture.
Christopher Nolan might be disappointed to have missed out on a director nomination (though his head-fuck of a blockbuster, Inception is a dead cert to to win a whole clutch of technical awards) the Coens will be the night's biggest losers when they go home empty handed despite starting the night with nominations for directing, producing and writing True Grit, their most commercially successful film to date. There will be a silver lining to True Grit's cloud though with British genius Roger Deakins finally winning an Oscar (on his eight attempt) for Best Cinematography.
Head here for the complete list of nominations as well as who we think will win and who we think should win, be sure to let as know whether you think we're right or wrong, and of course get ready to join hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco on the evening of February 27th for the 83rd Academy Awards.
Source: Screenrush
